Cartwright Curse ooo Cartwright Blessing
by Dreamer1985
Summary: Ben and Hoss talk about the curse that people say they have. ONE SHOT


**Fan-Fiction**

**Cartwright Curse -Cartwright Blessing**

**Hoss**

**I do not own the copyrights to Bonanza**

**ONE SHOT**

**NOTE: In the eighteen hundreds Ashley was a boy's name. I am not sure when the trend started changing.**

The fire's shadows lit up the room as Ben sat in his red chair looking at Hoss holding his year-old son Ashley on his lap. His son's weary eyes told more than his mouth ever could. Ben wondered what he could say -if anything- to ease the pain this son felt after burying yet another wife. The man felt older than he had in a very long time and he rubbed his forehead as they sat in silence.

"Pa." Hoss finally spoke quietly as not to wake his young son. "How did you do it?"

"Do what?" Ben asked putting his hand down onto the arm of the chair.

"Bury three wives and stay sane." Hoss sighed. "How can I keep going? "

"You just do, besides, you have that son of yours to think of." Ben fell silent as Jennifer came to the top of the stairs and asked if the two needed anything before she went to bed.

"How about coming and putting Ashley to bed?" Hoss looked down at his son who had lost the fight with sleep.

"Sure." Jennifer picked the lad up without him ever waking up.

"Julie told me she'd rather have one good year with someone than fifty of the other kind." Hoss leaned his head against the back of the dark chair. "Part of me says she got more than she asked for by six months, but… dag-burn-it, Pa, I wanted more." The middle Cartwright son found himself clenching his fist. "Adam is still married to Celeste and they've moved back to the ranch. Little Joe isn't even being called Little anymore and he and Alice are doing fine. Why couldn't I have that with Julie? Or even Emily? The man felt like punching a hole in the wall.

Ben spoke slowly knowing there wasn't anything he could do - or say- to ease the pain his middle son was having to work through. "I asked myself that same question after I buried your mother." Hoss' father's own eyes looked through the white fog of time as he remember holding Inger after she'd been hit by an arrow. "It was one I wondered when I buried Marie. And I asked it again as I walked the floor the night I was trying to decide whether, or not, to ask Jennifer to marry me - 'Did I have the right to ask her to be my wife when I seemed to carry a curse around me."

"Curse?" Hoss had thought many things in regards to his father, but the idea of him having a curse had never entered his head.

"Yes, curse. I'd already buried three wives. I wondered if I'd be signing her death warrant simply by marrying her." Ben looked down at his gnarled hands. "Even now -with Brenda and BJ here to prove I've gotten more time with her than I could have ever hoped for - I find myself wondering who will be buried first. Me or Jennifer? If she goes first will she think as she's leaving this earth that I passed the curse onto her." Neither of the two spoke as they thought of the curse people said they both carried.

"Or, maybe, I'd say you'd handed me a blessing." Both men turned to see Jennifer come down and take a seat near the fireplace.

"Blessing?" Both men asked in amazement. "Dying young is a blessing?"

"Do you know how many women don't even get one day of true happiness with the men they marry?" Jennifer looked at both her husband and stepson. "They live their whole lives either being abused by their men, having them step out on them with another woman, or drowning themselves in whiskey and gambling debts." Turning her palms upward she shook her head. "Cartwright Curse, or Cartwright blessing? That depends on how you look at it. I for one say it's a blessing - as I know Julie did, but…" Jennifer laid a hand on Hoss. "A Cartwright woman isn't dumb. We know death could come early -and seems to come high in this family - but we still want that blessing as long as we can get it. Though I am sorry it seems to be a curse to you." Jennifer's voice was soft and gentle.

"Julie really called it a blessing?" Hoss had been to wrapped up in grief to catch his wife's final words as she lay dying six months ago.

"Yes, Hoss, she did. I wouldn't make something like that up." Jennifer then moved closer to Ben. "And if I go first you better not claim any curse took me. We've been extremely blessed. I wouldn't change a thing if I could." Ben smiled as he clasped his wife's hand and looked at Hoss to see what he thought of what Jennifer had said.

"Reckon it won't fill the empty spot Julie left anytime soon, but …" Hoss managed to smile. "It's nice to know she never thought she'd been handed a curse." With that Ben and Jennifer left Hoss to sit by the fire alone thinking of the year and a-half he'd had with Julie. Finally a smile came on his face as he spoke softly - as if Julie were still there. "Reckon iffin you could see it as a blessing instead of a curse I can too." He then looked towards the ceiling. "Just don't go a sendin anyone to me yet, okay? I ain't a ready." The man went to bed convinced he'd heard his late wife whisper 'Okay.'


End file.
